Perceptions of Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles: A meta-analysis

Abstract

A meta-analysis was conducted to compare perceptions of Duchenne smiles, smiles that include activation of the cheek raiser muscle that creates crow's feet around the eyes, with perceptions of non-Duchenne smiles, smiles without cheek raiser activation. In addition to testing the overall effect, moderator analyses were conducted to test how methodological, stimulus-specific and perceiver-specific differences between studies predicted the overall effect size. The meta-analysis found that, overall, Duchenne smiles and people producing Duchenne smiles are rated more positively (i.e., authentic, genuine, real, attractive, trustworthy) than non-Duchenne smiles and people producing non-Duchenne smiles. The difference between Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles was greater when the stimuli were videos rather than photographs, when smiles were elicited naturally rather than through posing paradigms and when Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles were not matched for intensity of the lip corner puller in addition to other perceiver and methodological moderators.

Keywords:

• Duchenne smile
• Non-Duchenne smile
• Smile perceptions

Acknowledgements

This meta-analysis began as a part of the meta-analysis class taught by Judith A. Hall at Northeastern University. The authors thank Judith Hall for her mentorship throughout this process and for her feedback on earlier versions of the manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Perron and Roy-Charland (2013) was excluded for this reason.